It seems likely the New England Patriots will take Tom Brady’s successor in the upcoming draft, so why not go for a home run?
Since declaring for the NFL and passing on baseball, Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray has garnered some considerable (and deserved) attention. A remarkably gifted athlete with a bunch of upside, there’s a chance he falls to late in the first round due to concerns about him being too small (5-foot-10) to succeed in the NFL.
In their latest mock draft, CBS Sports had the Pats grabbing Murray with the 32nd overall pick, and for a pretty interesting reason.
“Honestly,” wrote author Tom Fornelli, “I’m putting Murray here because if there’s any team in the NFL smart enough to not worry about his size, and instead focus on his potential, I’d bet on it being the Patriots before any other franchise. ”
Indeed, the Patriots long have marched to the beat of their own drum, so taking a quarterback looked down upon for his size because they see something in him would be pretty on brand for them.
In 14 games this past season (his junior campaign), Murray completed 260 of his 377 pass attempts for 4,361 yards, 42 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He rushed another 140 times for 1,001 yards and 12 touchdowns.
